Xochitl (So-sheel) Oceano (1659-present) was raised in one of the last Azhua strongholds, Esquincl, on a small island in the Sunset Islands.

background

From an early age, Xochitl understood that, as a Naga, she represented an embarrassment to not only her mother’s Azhua family, but the entire village. To her Harkanian father, an intrepid sea captain named Jamison Hale, she was a mere inconvenience, someone to be visited once a year out of pity. Naturally headstrong, Xochitl resolved to cut her own path and, as soon as she was eligible for marriage, knowing she would only bring more shame on her family if no one would marry her, she slipped away in the night, navigating a small boat she had built herself. From her home, as a reminder of her origins, she took a small stone calendar, the size of her hand, made of three rotating rings aligned on a central pestle.

Xochitl headed for the nearest Naga territory, Noral, with the hopes that there she would find a sense of community and a hope for a better future. Alas, she soon learned that the Naga were as close-minded as the Azhua. Although she picked up their language and customs quickly, Xochitl was still an outsider. She pushed off again, and spent the better part of four years moving from island to island.

Those years changed her. Xochitl soon stopped looking for a place of belonging, and her attitude toward the Naga grew dark. She lost respect for the living and, along with it, grew to hold religion in disdain. She began to pick up on and hone her limited magical abilities during this time, and she used them mercilessly to swindle the Naga. She developed a knack for reading character and began amassing sizable wealth as a fortune teller. Her disgust with the Naga and their blind devotion to snake worship finally drove Xochitl to sign up as a merchant sailor, and at eighteen, she began her voyage across the Circle, away from the Sunset Islands for what she hoped would be the rest of her life.

Then, a strange, fateful thing happened. While at port in Harkania, Xochitl literally ran into her father as she was trying to dodge through the port city’s narrow streets. The meeting affected them both. Her father, if neglectful, was not wholly unkind, and he took her to his study, a map room by the sea. There they spent hours talking, sharing voyage stories, things they had seen. He told her of Sevilla, the Winterlands, Ugarite Valley, he had been to all of them. Then he told her two more things: Xochitl had a half-sister in Sevilla, and he was dying. He had been inland, to The Wastes, and something had happened to him there that he wouldn’t explain to her, but because of it, he was dying. He gave Xochitl his copper-plated pistol and the name of her half-sister. He told her to forget about him, but she embraced him and told him it was too late for that.

Her ship sailed that night. When Xochitl arrived in Sevilla, she sought out her half-sister, but like the Naga before her and the Azhua before them, she rejected Xochitl. Xochitl was crushed, her heart hardened for good. She returned to her old ways, masquerading as a Naga shaman and swindling the guileless inhabitants of the farm towns, living recklessly, drinking carelessly. Waiting, but never expecting, for something better to come along.

appearence

Xochitl is 22, stands 5'3 and is lightly built and skinny even by Naga standards. She has creamy ochre scales flecked here and there with irridescent finishes in bronze and gold. She has a mop of orange hair, more often than not beaded and baided into feylocks, jata and  tight twists. Unlike most Naga, Xochitl maintains a semi-autonomous, thin whip like tail which she normally keeps coiled around her left leg. She has her father's green eyes and her face tends towards the more human features of her paternal lineage. She wears a loose, light beige linen shirt under a tight leather vest, dark pants, and tall boots to conceil her clawed feet, about which she is self-conscious.  A large pack, full of talismans and forged artifacts, accompanies her at all times.

personality

Feeling as though she has been abandoned by both her parents and her parent races, Xochitl is surly, bordering on self-destructive. An independant spirit who feels deeply as though she has nothing left to lose, Xochitl's actions are reckless and occasionally desperate. That said, she still has a strong drive to preserve her life if not its quality and takes pains to avoid danger where she can. Skilled at the magic of deception, Xochitl prefers to stand back in combat, using invisibility and psychotropic spells to disable her opponents. Like most egg-born Naga she suffers from a Ovarian melancholy.

equipment

Xochitl's magical skills are considerable enough that she comes to combat with relatively little equipment, preferring light crossbow and single shot pistol to more elaborate weapons.

religion

As a child, Xochitl drew associations between religion and the races that subjugated and rejected her. When she discovered she could use others' religious beliefs to manipulate them, she gave up on religion and the idea that there could be any mindful entity regarding her life from above.  Xochitl still retains a deep-seated longing for spiritual connection that stems from her desire to belong and that, in the willful absence of religion, is frequently played out in tumultuous late night rondez vous. 

relationships

quotes

"I am possessed by something that doesn't want me to have a social life."